R.I.P. SANDSTONE?
Last night's R.E.O. Speedwagon/Kansas/.38 Special show might've been the swan song for our largest local outdoor concert venue, Sandstone (AKA "Verizon Wireless") Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, KS. The Live Nation concert promoter outfit currently operates the place, but they are not renewing their agreement after this year, and it's quite possible the place may well close down for good. I can promise you, I won't shed any tears over its demise if it does indeed bite the dust.I've always hated this shithole. First off, it's 30 miles from where I live, it's a pain in the ass to get to, and traffic is a total clusterfuck both before and after shows. The place opened in 1984, and yet to this day, lawn-ticket people are still expected to park in a dusty gravel parking lot, while the reserved seat-ticket people get the cushy asphalt lot, naturally. The sight lines are dreadful, the sound (especially on the lawn) is abysmal, the video screens are totally worthless until the sun goes down, and there's no protection from the sun at all during all-day concerts. The rinky-dink stage is so small that Kiss couldn't even "fly" their trademark light-up logo signs—they had to place them on the stage floor itself, which looked quite bizarre. And don't even get me started on the restrooms, which are numerous cuts below those found at old Texaco stations in the deep South.
They can bulldoze Sandstone for all I care, and I won't miss it. Hopefully, this will mean more concerts at a far superior—albeit smaller—tdoor venue, the mighty Starlight Theater in Swope Park, which is a mere six miles from where I live...
SOCCER SUCKERS
Some folks are actually up in arms with our local soccer team, the Kansas City Wizards, for not providing any sort of refund for their upcoming home game vs. the L.A. Galaxy, that was supposed to feature their wounded overrated futbol idol David Beckham. You see, the Wizzes did like all the other Major League Soccer franchises and decided to price-gouge their fans for the privilege of seeing this goomer in the flesh by charging $35-50 a ticket for this particular game, when tix are normally $16-20, as well as charging 10 Yankee dollars for parking when it's normally free for Wiz games. Can you say "extortion"? And the Wizards are steadfastly refusing to make good for the fans who bought tickets, even though Beckham will more than likely miss the game—not exactly brilliant P.R. for a team that's trying to get the city to build them their own new stadium. As for you rubes who were dumb enough to buy those tickets, y'all screwed yourselves—get over it!
A.G.D., WEEK 2
Another Automatic Good Day, and another Notre Dame shellacking—bravo to Penn State for doing the honors this week! A little history was made today in college football, as Notorious Dame and Michigan are both 0-2 at the same time for the first time ever in the recorded history of mankind. As for the latter, grief counselors are in for a busy week in Ann Arbor...
Meantime, Mizzou is 2-0 after beating Ole Miss 38-25 on the road. Would've been cool to actually watch the game on the tube, but for reasons that no one can fully explain, Big 12 football games—especially those involving Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State—are generally unavailable to viewers in this region. Never mind the fact that anyone with cable can easily get virtually every Big 10 game here every weekend. Poffeycock, I dare say!
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #50
"Slave"--ELTON JOHN (1972) "I swear someday, I'm gonna burn the whorehouse to the ground." This obscure EJ song from Honky Chateau always made me think he was singing "I'm gonna burn the horse to the ground", which prompted me to ask, "What's Elton (and/or Bernie) got against horses?"
GETTIN' THE HOOK
Seems that "comedian" Eddie Griffin had the plug pulled on his performance this week at an event sponsored by Black Enterprise magazine for using the "N-word" (nose job? nefarious? needle-dick?). I would submit that the real reason he was yanked from the show is because he's not terribly funny in the first place. I don't care if he is from Kansas City—this guy is about as humorous as a colostomy bag.
2 comments:
Let me guess - the property Sandstone sits on has become too valuable as real estate to sit idle most of the year.
Starwood, Nashville's Sandstone equivalent, was bulldozed earlier this year to make room for a housing development.
Brilliant diagnosis, Doctor! It just so happens that Sandstone is just down the road from our local NASCAR track, and the explosion of retail development around the speedway seemingly has no bounds...
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